VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh Intelligence Department officials arrested seven persons from Gunadala area in Vijayawada on Wednesday for reportedly operating three VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) exchanges for helping agents of enemy countries to gather sensitive information.
The facilities were being used by Intelligence operatives from Pakistan for making calls to security personnel in J&K to acquire sensitive information posing as senior Indian Army officials.
Acting on a tip-off from the Military Intelligence Unit of Jammu & Kashmir, the State Intelligence officials unearthed the illegal VOIP exchanges.
During the raid, Intelligence officials seized three boxes containing over 230 sim cards, laptops, desktops and other incriminating material. Police are likely to make more arrests.
According to the sources, it is learnt that the accused joined hands with persons operating from Pakistan and Gulf countries to create unrest in the country. “The fraudsters are operating from Pakistan and making calls to security personnel in Jammu & Kashmir through the VOIP exchanges to acquire country’s sensitive information.
It is learnt that these exchanges enabled callers from other countries to call Indian numbers by hiding their identity and showing some Indian numbers to their receivers,” a senior police officer was quoted as saying by a media report.
After searches conducted by Intelligence officials in Gunadala, police identified the location of the kingpin who was running these illegal exchanges along with others on Wednesday. Similar nefarious activities carried out by anti-national elements were busted in Telangana.
AP Intelligence chief AB Venkateswara Rao was not available when Express tried to reach him for his comments.
However, addressing a press conference, Vijayawada City Police Commissioner Gautam Sawang said Intelligence Department was on the job and investigating to find out what information the seven accused gathered. He said the investigation will focus on what information did they shared.
“Premature comments on this issue will deviate the process of investigation. In general, these facilities will also be used for fraudulent monetary gains. Apart from being a security concern, such exchanges cause huge financial loss to the exchequer. Soon, we will trace the culprits,” he said.
Illegal VoIP call exchanges
Military Intelligence Unit of J&K alerted AP police when they received suspicious calls
These calls routed to Indian numbers as legitimate calls from another number in the country
Criminals adopted this to convince security personnel that the caller was an authorised Indian officer
VOIP concealed the callers’ true identity
In TS, seven persons were arrested on December 24 for similar fraud
The criminals’ choice of Vijayawada for their operations worries State police